


Red Never Looked Better

by rainydayrea



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom
Genre: Explicit Language, Gen, Murder, Original Character Death(s), Possible Relationship, Reader-Interactive, Relationship May Change, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-07-23 17:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7471848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainydayrea/pseuds/rainydayrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laina used to live her life in an area where she wouldn't even have to lock the doors at night... Now, she's the first target of a deranged criminal, Jeff the Killer's, plan to continue his murder spree and stay out of a prison cell. </p><p>Warning: Graphic violence, especially later on. Ask if I should tag anything else!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Night Out

It was nearing 8 o’clock by the time Laina finally ran down her stairs, almost tripping on the last step. The seconds were ticking towards the time the movie started and she hated missing the previews. She almost left without her phone had it not been for the flurry of notifications ringing from its speaker.

“Literally five more minutes!” Laina answered.

"You’d better be, I'm literally waiting out on the sidewalk! It’s so hot out here." It was only spring, but the temperature had been well above normal and Laina knew how much her best friend hated the heat. Laina looked down at her watch, fifteen minutes before the movie started. It took ten minutes just to get to the theater.

"Yeah, okay. I'll be right there," She said into the phone that was sandwiched between her ear and shoulder. Laina slipped on her flats and ran out past the front gate and to her car. She spread some lip gloss on before she started the engine and backed out of the driveway.

Laina really needed the break. The past few weeks at work had proved to be some of the most stressful of her entire career. It was exam season and the school division was trying a different outlook on in-class studying which only made her job more complicated at the worst time possible. Just to add on top of it, Laina’s late night binge watching sessions and the news of a highly dangerous prison escapee added the cherry on top of her anxious tendencies. Living alone only had the benefit of privacy when bumps and shuffles echoed through the empty hallways of her place in the middle of the night.

She pulled up to her friend’s apartment and honked the horn, getting her attention, and waving her in. Michelle's curly hair bounced spastically as she ran towards the car. She slowed as she reached the door, pushing up her glasses and fixing her disheveled locks before hopping in. Laina smiled and stepped on it, hoping to make it there in the nick of time.

"Are you sure you wanna see this?" Laina asked, raising her eyebrows. It was far from an everyday occurrence for Michelle to be up for watching a scary movie. Laina could recall last Halloween when she was helping handing out trick or treats and got scared by a sheet ghost.

"Oh, totally. Are you? You know that watching movies about death can actually shorten your life, right?" Laina rolled her eyes. Michelle was having second thoughts.

"Then I should be long gone by now." Laina laughed, tapping at the steering wheel along to the music. “If you don't want to see it, we don't have to.”

“No, no, I know you've been waiting for this movie to come out since January. Besides, who else would you see it with?” Michelle joked, but Laina took the last part to heart. She wouldn't be seeing it with anyone else because there wasn't anyone else. Michelle was the only close friend she had in Crystal Falls and there was no way in hell she’d see a movie with one of her co workers. It took Michelle a moment to take in what she said, but she stayed silent for the rest of the drive.

"All the way to the back, then turn right at theater 16. Enjoy your show, " the young man at the small desk directed. They followed the directions and entered the empty theater with balanced bags of popcorn, drinks and junk filling their arms.

"Glad we came on the last day." Laina loved having theaters to herself. No one kicking at the back of her chair, no popcorn mysteriously falling into their hair, and they could put their feet up on the backs of the seats. Laina felt relaxed for the first time since Christmas break.

They walked up the stairs and sat in the very middle of the theater. The previews had long since already started and Laina sipped on her icy soda.

“So did you hear about that insane guy that escaped from the prison? They're saying he had a life sentence and everything.” Laina’s stomach twisted at Michelle's words. She hoped she wouldn't be hearing about it anymore, but Michelle's phone was glued to her hand and all she did was hear about things.

“Who's they? The gossipy news pages on Facebook?” Laina felt turned off by the greasy popcorn and put it in the floor.

“The cops, obviously.” Laina couldn't have been more thankful for the movie to start and Michelle to stop talking.

Laina's attention drifted away from the movie. She had so much on her plate that she found it hard to focus on any one thing. Between work and a completely unhealthy sleep schedule and family, Laina was amongst a storm cell of inescapable distress. She zoned out, but not enough so to not notice Michelle jump out of her seat at a scare on the big screen. Michelle laughed with Laina, but looked slightly embarrassed.

Their joy faltered when Michelle's attention shifted towards the the doorway of the theater. "Jeez, who would come in halfway through a movie like that?" She asked. All Laina could do was give a slight shrug. Her grip on the popcorn tightened as the hooded male walked up the stairs. She scrunched her nose as he sat directly behind them. There was definitely no point in Laina trying to pay attention to the movie as she felt the eyes of the stranger behind her. She jumped to irrational conclusions, but tried to push them out of her head. She begged for just one much needed, stress free, girl’s night.

The man left just before the credits began to roll. Laina couldn’t believe how passively Michelle handled the stranger’s presence and envied her clear conscious. The lights could not turn on soon enough and Laina breathed out a sigh of relief. She glanced behind her, just to make sure the hooded man was gone. She left her half empty popcorn on the floor and quickly headed to the stairs. Michelle struggled to follow behind her.

"Why the rush?" Laina's friend asked with a nervous laugh.

"Nothing, sorry. I just need some air." Laina's hand that gripped her pop started to shake, the ice clinking together loudly. Michelle knew that she was lying. Laina didn’t lie often, and when she did she was like a pane of glass. Her hands would shake and her jaw would clench and Michelle knew this all too well.

The two walked out of the movie theater into the chilly night air. The sky was pitch black and the temperature had dropped drastically in the hours that passed. Laina took a deep breath, holding the cool air in her lungs for a some seconds before heavily exhaling.

Then she got the feeling again. The feeling of being watched. Another movie was just finishing and people were filing out of the building, so she couldn’t understand why she felt so unbelievably paranoid. Michelle already started walking towards the parking lot, but Laina was frozen in place. Nerves getting to her, she looked around.

“Laina, what are you waiting for?” Michelle called to her. Laina didn’t budge. Michelle walked back to her, scanning their surroundings to try and see what Laina was seeing, but she didn’t notice anything out of the usual. Laina’s cheeks paled as she saw a figure slip behind the dimly lit corner of the theater.

“Did you see that?”

“See what, Laina? Come on, the mosquitoes are coming out.”

“No, someone was over there.”

Michelle followed Laina’s gaze. “There’s no parking over there, who did you see?” She swatted at the tiny bugs in the air and grew impatient. “It was probably just an employee, let’s go.”

“Just wait up,” Laina practically shoved her leftover popcorn and car keys into Michelle’s hand and walked towards the far corner. Laina was always a slave to her own curiosity and would feel better to just make sure it was an employee and not some gross stalker or something. For all she knew, it could be one of her students joking around, but she had to know or it would eat her alive all night.

Laina gripped her purse tightly to her side, making sure she remembered where she put her tiny Swiss Army knife. She slowed her pace as she came up to the edge. There were little to no lighting at the back aside from a red exit sign and the dim illumination from the moon. She peeked around the corner and saw nothing, but empty garbage bins. Laina looked back to the front of the building, Michelle was gone, most likely waiting in the car. So with questionable judgement and faith in her pinkie sized knife, she turned the corner and walked deeper behind the building.

Laina couldn’t decipher whether on not she had heard a breathy laugh or the wind, but she spun on her heel and stopped only to dig into her purse. She took out the army knife and flipped open the minuscule blade. She effectively frightened herself, walking backwards into a small pile of empty cups and candy bags. Heart thumping in her chest, she thought it was best to get back. Her disillusioned mind was playing tricks on her and that’s why she thought she had seen somebody; Or at least that was what she thought before a hand came from behind her and held a firm grasp over her mouth. She tried to scream from behind the hand, but barely a whimper came out. Her purse fell off her arm and she remembered her knife. She raised it to get a swing at the perpetrator, but he swiftly moved around and pinned her wrists up against the wall. The weapon fell from her grasp and clattered on the cement.

The man from inside the theater stood in front of her now. His face was so shaded from the night sky and the hood up over his head, she couldn’t see a single feature on his face. She was stricken with shock and it didn’t clue in to yell until she felt his fingers dancing on her wrists. Her mouth fell open and she barely made a peep before a knuckle connected with her cheek. Laina fell to the ground and whined out in pain. The punch pushed her lip into her teeth and she could taste and feel where it made her skin split. She took the chance while on the ground to go for her Swiss Army knife where it laid only a few feet away. It didn’t take very long for the man to clue into where she was headed and stopped her hand with his combat boot. She looked up at him with terrified eyes and tried her absolute best to tug her hand out from under his step.

"What, are you scared?" His unexpected deep, raspy voice made a chill go down her spine. She didn’t even think before she yelled out for help, only to be cut short by the man’s weight being shifted onto her hand. Her knuckle popped and she twisted her wrist to try and find a comfortable position as she prayed nothing was broken.

"What do you want?" Laina's voice was quiet, but she held her own. She used the same voice in the classroom to her problem students as to not be threatening, but maintain authority. But she knew she held no power in her position, the man stood over her and watched, hands lazily in the front pouch of his white hoodie. Laina heard him cackle as his head turned towards the knife on the ground.

“That little thing? A pretty girl like you should be carrying around something better than that. Pepper spray would have helped a lot, no one thinks of pepper spray.”

“What do you want?” Laina asked much louder, though her voice was twice as shaky. If it meant a few broken fingers to get some much needed attention to the back of the theater, so be it. The man kneeled down. He first picked up the Swiss Army knife and put it in his pocket. Laina watched him carefully.

“Well…” He laughed lowly, hands coming up to the hood. “We wouldn’t want to spoil anything, would we?” He pushed back the hood and Laina had miraculously wiggled her way from under the boot and scurried across the ground as far away as she could from what she saw. With only the dark red light from the neon sign, she couldn’t look away from the grotesque features on the man’s face. She thought for a moment it was a mask, but the features moved to naturally and she felt sick to her stomach. His eyes were round and rimmed with unnaturally dark circles, but his mouth was the worst part. It was wide, literally from ear to ear, and scarred blood red. She put an uninjured hand up to her mouth and sat motionless, hoping with every fibre of her body he’d just leave her sights. She’d seen the face before, but only in news articles online. Laina had never imagined the escaped convict would be Jeff the Killer, and had definitely never expected an unpleasant meeting.

And with the oncoming noise of what had to be an actual employee, he took a few steps backwards, eyes never leaving Laina, and took off over the fence and into the dark field towards a neighborhood in the distance.

Laina scrambled to pick up her belongings with a bloody lip and busted hand. She walked slowly back to the front of the building. Cars were still driving out of the parking lot, but no one was standing in front of the theater. She sighed, glad there was no one there to confront her about her injuries, but defeated, looking into the emptying lot where her car was nowhere to be found. She rubbed her forehead in frustration. She felt uneasy standing outside and went into the first set of unlocked doors of the theater where people usually waited for rides after a finished movie. She thought she’d call the police when she was feeling stable enough to go through the explanation process.

Laina asked herself how she found herself in the situation she was in. She dug around in her purse for her phone, unlocked it and went to her contacts. Her eyes skimmed very quickly down the list. She wasn't exactly the social butterfly. She scrolled through the grand total of seven contacts, three of whom she hadn’t talked to in at least a year. Laina was obviously irritated with Michelle, but she wasn't going to explain to her what happened just yet and get her in a panic, so that was off the list. Her mom lived miles away, and had grown busy and distant. Her ex, Mark was still in university… and it was exam season. Laina’s head starting aching. That left her old friend Alisa. Alisa only lived few blocks away. She stared down at the phone, contemplating the idea of talking to what could be considered a stranger at that point, before dialing her number and putting it up to her ear.


	2. Doctor's Orders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of a filler, things get more exciting in the next chapter which will most likely be out tomorrow. Hope you're liking it!

"Hello?" Alisa answered. Laina breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Hey, it's Laina…” She bit her lip. Alisa had gone through a really rough patch in her personal life and pushed most of her friends away for months. Laina hoped she wasn’t being a bother.

"Yeah, I saw your name." Alisa spoke softer than Laina remembered, but it had been months since they spoke last. 

"Yeah… Sorry to bother you this late at night, but could I ask for a huge favor?" Laina asked, running a hand through her long hair. 

"Go for it.”

“Could I get a drive from the theater, the one by the big drugstore?” Laina squeezed her eyes shut, praying she didn’t have to settle for a taxi. 

“Uh, yeah sure. Gimme five or so minutes.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Alisa,” Laina said with a relieved chuckle. 

"I'll be right there, bye." Laina tossed her phone back into her purse. A popular song played from the speakers to fill the silence in the closing establishment. She leaned on the wall in the warm enclosure and stayed on her phone to pass the time, taking quick glances out of the windows. 

It didn’t take long for Alisa to reach her. she heard a tap on the glass doors, shocking her away from her mobile game. She picked her purse up from the floor and pushed open the door to leave.

"Hi!" Laina greeted hugging Alisa tightly. 

"Hey, what happened- Oh!” Alisa replied a little less enthusiastically, noticing the swollen, cut lip on Laina, but returning the hug all the same. 

"It's really good to see you again!" Alisa pulled away from the hug first, but nodded in agreeance. Laina noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the lazy clothes she never remembered Alisa stepping out of the house wearing, but she felt it wasn’t her place to ask. She appreciated the lack of questioning about her own appearance as well. 

"Okay let's go," Laina broke the silence. They began walking to Alisa's old, rusting chevy. Laina hopped in the front seat and buckled in. The car ride back to Laina's house was mostly silent, other than short lived bouts of small talk. Alisa mentioned the car radio was completely busted when Laina suggested turning up the music. 

The brakes squealed as they came to a stop in front of Laina’s place. Alisa’s smile of farewell didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

"Hey, thanks again," Laina unbuckled herself and reached to unbuckle the belt, but hesitated and looked back at her friend. "Could we talk about something for just a second?" Laina asked, turning away from the driver’s side. Alisa noticeably stiffened, never taking her hands off the steering wheel. 

"Sure." 

Laina looked down, then back up, and began by saying, "This is going to sound really crazy, but I need to tell someone,” Laina kept her focus on the empty road and she continued, “I ran into this lunatic behind the theater tonight. I don’t know if you heard or not, but I think it was the guy that’s on the loose, and-”

Alisa cut her off, "You should leave," The shakiness in her old friend's voice made it clear that she was dead serious. Laina was upset with the sudden harshness in Alisa’s words. 

"I'm sorry if I said something wrong…” Laina stuttered as she tried to explain.

"Now!" Alisa demanded. Laina could hear how wound up Alisa had gotten and promptly listened. Laina grabbed her purse and opened the car door. She said a quick apology under her breath and ran up to her front door, hurriedly unlocking and then locking the door after she slammed it behind her. She ran to her bedroom, not bothering to turn on the light. She pushed herself up against the wall and slid down. Tears welling up in her eyes, she wrapped her arms around her head. Laina wasn’t too well versed in making conversation, let alone being angrily yelled at by someone she considered a friend. She wiped at her eyes, smearing away the mascara and eyeliner that blotched around her eyes. She moved, hoping to stand up, but froze when she heard the bedroom door open. A warm hand rested on her shoulder and she leaped up into the air and grabbed the lamp sitting on her bedside table. 

"Laina, Laina! Calm down! It's me, Michelle." Laina looked up, her eyes puffy and red from crying. Both girls breathed heavy. Laina dropped the lamp back down and ran to Michelle, nearly falling into her arms. Michelle embraced her like a child that had just suffered a nightmare. “Sorry for ditching, I wasn’t thinking straight,” Michelle explained. 

It was Laina that pulled away and smiled, thankful that she had someone with her. She felt something warm drip down her chin and she brought a finger up to her mouth. 

"Oh jeez, what happened?" Michelle asked looking at the gash on her friend's lip. Laina had almost forgot about the throbbing coming from her hand and mouth. 

Without saying a word, Laina ran to her bathroom and grabbed a facecloth. Michelle trailed close behind. She gasped at the sight of herself, her cheeks were blotchy with streaky mascara and her lip was swollen cherry red. 

“Do you think you could drive me to the hospital? I’m thinking stitches.”

“I think you’re right. Let’s go.”

Laina wet a cloth with cool water and pressed it to her mouth as they got ready to go back out. Laina was surprised with herself, taking the situation as good as she was. She barely made it out alive after she got in a minor disagreement with a student’s mom over a grading mistake, so she was impressed that the panic that should’ve followed the night’s incident hadn’t set in yet. 

“So, are you gonna tell me the story behind your busted lip, or what?” Michelle asked, keeping her eyes averted from the blood stained cloth. 

“First, you have to promise you won’t freak out. If you do, I do too. I’ll call the cops as long as I’m not a stuttering mess,” Laina mumbled around the fabric and adjusted it to speak better, “And two, keep it between us. I don’t need anyone on your blog to be reading up on my private life.” 

“Lips are sealed shut.”

“I think I had a run in with that guy that escaped from prison. I mean, it had to have been, matched the description and everything.” She shivered as she tried shaking his face from her mind. 

“Laina, oh my gosh…” Michelle’s smile dropped, face stricken with worry. She adjusted her glasses, looking in all the mirrors as if the criminal would be right on their tails. “How did you get out alive?” 

“Common sense? To be completely honest, I’m not sure. And I’m thinking he’ll be back, or rather, I know he will.” Laina suddenly felt the familiar coil of anxiety deep in her guts and she held on just a little tighter to the wash cloth. 

“Hey, hey, it’s alright. The guy can’t know where you live,” even Michelle doubted her words. From what they both knew, he had been in and out of a prison cell and asylums time and time again since he was just a kid. The local news had been consistently covering the story for the past week, saying the police department nearly had the city under a state of emergency. 

Laina’s thoughts caught up to her and she found herself punching 911 into her phone. She hesitated to press the call button; if there was one thing she hated more than doctor’s appointments, it was calling up to make them. Laina had never called the cops. 

She described the entire encounter to the woman on the line, who promptly asked if it was a prank call and that they, “didn’t have time for nonsensical jokes”. Laina heard a voice on the other end and the speaker crackled as the phone was passed to a different receiver, who quickly apologized and got down all the needed information. 

The phone call took up the entire drive to the hospital. Anyone would be thankful for an unoccupied waiting room, and that’s exactly what they got. The two walked up to the front desk to a lady with uneven red lipstick on tight lips typing away at a computer. She only acknowledged them enough to take out a clipboard and pen and slide it across the desk.

"Please state your condition or injury, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can," she stated monotonously. 

Michelle cleared her throat, leaning towards the lady. “I get how the business is ran, but my friend here as a busted mouth and she’s bleeding out. There’s probably only a couple cases of the cold sitting out there.” The lady looked up and over her glasses and let out a silent gasp. 

“I’ll see what I can do.” She hobbled out of her chair and pattered away. Laina gave her best friend a look of thankfulness as the lady almost immediately came back out. “Come, follow me.”

Laina sat up on the examination table, brown boots swinging off the edge as she folded over the blood soaked face cloth. Michelle sat in the chair in front of her, boredly tapping at her phone. The silence made the waiting drag on for an increasingly tiring amount of time. Laina hadn’t even thought of the time until the clock ticking on the wall was all she could here, and it was getting to be way past her bedtime. 

“So what are you gonna tell the doc, ‘Mrs. Stay-out-of-my-personal-life’?” 

"Some guy jumped me leaving the club,” Laina said after rehearsing it in her head. She decided it would be a bit more believable than her initial ‘fell off bike’ story. Michelle nodded in approval and went back to her screen. Laina was tempted to shove the cotton balls sitting in a jar on the counter into her ears if it meant blocking the nervous 'tick tock, tick tock' of the clock. 

"Hello, I heard you have a bit of an injury," The man smiled as he made his way into the room, putting on a pair of gloves. Michelle raised her eyebrows up and down towards Laina behind the doctor’s back and Laina scoffed, but quickly covered up with some polite coughing. 

After the stitches were all sewn up, Laina told him about her knuckle as well, which thankfully wasn’t in very bad shape besides some swelling and minor discomfort. He prescribed a bag of frozen peas and relaxation, but other than that they were good to go. Laina thanked him and Michelle thanked him a little more as they made their way out of the sterile room. 

They kept the conversation on the drive back fairly light hearted. Michelle confessed about her obvious googly eyes for the doctor, who she had actually met a few weeks ago at a bar. Laina focused a little more on driving with one hand and keeping the other steadily elevated on the gear shift. 

"Bye Michelle. Maybe stay in tonight, for my sake. Remember to lock your doors, I don't need anything to happen to you too." Laina put her trust into her eyes as she looked watched Michelle walk to the apartment doors. 

"Text me when you get home!" She waved walking inside. 

She settled with a bag of frozen raspberries. After double checking for locked doors and windows, she made her way up to her room. Her pajamas were difficult getting on with one good hand, but she managed, and slipped under her covers. Laina couldn’t tell if it was the bumpy pack of cold fruit or her horrible excuse for a relaxing night, but she couldn’t find it in her to get a wink of shut eye.


	3. Baggage

Laina slept in late and woke with the intentions of not letting the previous night’s events get to her head. It was no doubt traumatic and rattled her to her core, but it was her previous and recent visits to a counselor that reminded her to keep moving forward and not hang on to the past too much. Not to mention, the forecast called for a beautiful week and she didn’t want to waste the last few days of nice weather before it got too hot to even step outside. She looked disappointingly at her phone’s calendar and all the empty spaces where she skipped out on her daily runs.

Laina jogged past some familiar faces she’d missed on the days she decided to spend at home watching her favourite shows and eating junk. Her first stop was coming soon, at a bench and water fountain where she’d take a breather. She squinted in the distance, observing what she thought could’ve been construction tape until she jogged close enough to tell for sure. And she didn’t like the looks of it when she did.

She stood breathing heavy with hands on her hips and sweat beaded brows furrowing together. Crime tape circled around the wooden bench. Laina filled her water bottle at the fountain. She took a drink and was about to continue her jog when she noticed something highlighter yellow peeking out from under the water pipe. She looked around and waved to a passer by to make sure it didn’t look like she was being nosy around the crime scene. She peeled the sticky note off the pipe and flipped it around.

‘Beautiful day isn’t it ☺’

The note read. Laina felt as if all eyes were suddenly on her and she crumpled the note and held onto it tightly until she got to a garbage disposal. She would’ve forgotten about it all together if there wasn’t another one just around the can.

‘Think you could do us a favor?’

Laina’s stomach twisted. She couldn’t ignore it, she became skeptical of every tree and light post she passed, expecting another note. It took the entirety of her run to the next neighborhood’s mailboxes to find the last note. It stuck out of the return slot and Laina snatched it out.

‘You’re low on milk.’ ~Love, Jeff

“You’re sick,” Laina hissed at the words on the paper. She was more disgusted with the fact that he had been roaming her belongings, most likely while she was fast asleep.

Laina put off her errands for the majority of the day. She couldn’t decide which was more spiteful: staying home and ignoring the “pleasant” notes, or going to actually get the groceries she needed. She was terribly indecisive.

She sat in her parked car, only making the decision to go to the store after several long, thoughtful moments and some assuring advice from Michelle. Even if it was over something so trivial, it was ballsy for Laina. She had a history of avoiding confrontation and taking the easy way out of problems. Michelle on the other hand, loved a challenge. To some extent, Laina looked up to Michelle for this and taking her advice was a step in the right direction. Laina wished she could take her around with her.

"Why didn’t I make up my mind sooner?" Laina asked herself, walking into the grocery store. Only a one or two glaring employees took up the cash registers and the aisles were eerily deserted and felt more like silent corridors.

Laina went everywhere, but the dairy aisle, and resisted the shelves of chocolate and candy as she grocery shopped. She was at her last stop, looking for a specific brand of gluten free granola bars. Something toppled over in the row next to her and she startled, nearly dropping her basket. She promptly sook it off. Laina found what she was looking for; and it sat on the top shelf, just out of reach. Even for the woman of tall stature, she couldn’t get to it without some serious climbing. She cursed under her breath and took a step onto the shelf before being encircled by a presence behind her. An arm reached up and got the box down, placing it gently in her basket. She couldn’t even turn around.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Jeff could feel the deep breath she took and covered her mouth before the plea for help was able to escape her lips.

Laina let the basket slip off her arm and pushed back into the body. She clawed at the hand over her mouth and had failed to realize the weapon Jeff wielded until she came in contact with it’s icy blade. She jerked away her blood smeared hand. Her knees shook, already tired and weakened from her first run in days, and now she was paralyzed with wondering whose blood was on her hands.

Jeff kept the knife pointed towards her abdomen and pulled her head back to whisper close in her ear, “Are you going to keep quiet?”

Laina enthusiastically nodded. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. The hand left her mouth.

Laina kept her voice low and to the point as she spoke, “You can’t do this.”

“Says who?”

“There are cameras.”

“Who do you think’s on this knife?”

It didn’t take long for Laina to figure it out and she admitted defeat. Undoubtedly, the surveillance screens served little purpose with no one able to watch them. Whatever employees left in the store were half asleep and had no intentions of inspecting the aisles for damsels in distress.

Jeff gave her specific instructions to act like he wasn’t even there, even as he casually declared himself a product tester of whatever he took a liking to in the store. To her fortune, she was done getting what she needed to and headed to the front. Jeff noticed, and swooped in beside her, draping an arm around her shoulder. Laina didn’t protest. He held a piece of her long, blonde hair between two fingers.

“You’re forgetting something.”

And she made her way to the refrigerators. Jeff had taken the opportunity to slip out of the back of the store. Laina took her groceries up to the front counter. She barely had the willpower to say goodnight back to the employee. Laina was utterly drained and just wanted to go home and have a good cry, hopefully by herself.

Laina was scared half to death when she heard the horn honking from her own car. She was in the process of putting the groceries in the trunk and she very nearly hit her head on it before she shoved the last bag in and closed it up. The dark parking lot was empty, but there was enough open fast food restaurants in running distance if things were to go bad. She stayed at the back of her car as the driver’s door opened. She hadn’t realized until that moment that her car keys were nowhere on her person.

“Shouldn’t be leaving your doors unlocked,” Jeff snickered, dangling the keys on his finger and closing the door behind him. He took cruelly slow steps, taunting the very thought that Laina could sprint to a nearby business and get help. She was frozen in place and empty handed, but the thought was awfully appealing. The knife made it’s second appearance of the night and landed in Laina’s direction.

Laina swallowed hard. “Just tell me what you want.” She brought her sweaty palms up to show she had no hidden intentions to which Jeff responded with a frightening laugh.

"Look, I need to stay somewhere for the night, and your place is sounding awfully nice.”

"Why should I let you know where I live?” Her voice shook with intensity. She regretted the words as they came out of her mouth. There was a time and place for finally finding confidence, but that wasn’t it. Jeff’s laughter almost immediately halted.

In three quick moves and half that number of seconds, Laina was pinned against her car, arm painfully twisted behind her back and head throbbing from the impact. The cool blade was pressed just beneath her jaw bone.

“You really think in that pretty little head of yours that I wouldn’t know that already?” Jeff growled. “Now, are we going to stand here all night or can we get going?” Laina nodded, taking precaution to move in the opposite direction of the knife. "Good.” he slid his hand down to hers and put the keys into her hands. He stood in place for only a moment longer before making his way to the passenger side. Laina waited until his door closed to breathlessly make her way to the driver’s door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long! I'll try and get chapters out at least every week. I usually work on original stuff, but I'll try and make this a little more of a priority! Thanks for reading. Comments, as always, are very appreciated!


	4. Conflict

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super sorry for not updating in forever! I was on vacation and rarely had internet access. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. Things are going to be a little slow updating because until now everything was pre-written. Thanks for being patient.

Laina’s hands shook as she unlocked her front door. Saying the drive to her house was tense would be an appalling understatement. It only took a moment to unload the few groceries she picked up. To be fair, she was rushing, it’s not like she knew how well the murderous serial killer handled people taking their time. 

Laina felt helpless. Jeff sat on her couch, her cell phone in his hand. Borrowing a safety pin from Laina, he popped the sim card from the phone, rendering it as useless as her laptop she told herself she was going to get fixed days ago. Laina watched him from afar, keeping quiet and just absorbing her incredulous situation. She was harbouring a highly wanted criminal in her living room and every brain cell in her head was fizzling at an attempt to create some rational thoughts. 

The tv echoed from the floor beneath her room. Laina stared patiently and absentmindedly at the ceiling; she left the job of trying to fall asleep to her sleeping pills. 

\--------------------------------  
She sat up in her bed, chest heaving up and down. Laina looked around her room, making sure her nightmare was just a nightmare and no one was staring down at her lifeless body. She almost let out a breath of relief until she heard a series of clangs and thumps coming from the kitchen. She hopped out of bed and crept across the floor to close the door quietly. She rushed on a shirt and sweats before slipping out of her room and down the stairs to where her uninvited guest would be. 

Laina tiptoed across the floor, staying near the walls and avoiding the spots that she knew creaked. She spun around, peeking around the corner towards the kitchen and scanned the area. She let out the heavy air in her lungs and walked in, feeling as if she was the one intruding in her own home. The blonde grabbed a glass out of the dishwasher and turned on the cold water. She yawned, waiting bored with her fingers under the tap. She ran her hand through her long hair. Laina prayed that the last couple of nights were just a long, sick delusion. 

Laina nearly pushed the glass off the counter as the phone began to ring, cutting through the silence. She clumsily turned off the water, saved the glass from toppling off the edge and wiped her hand on her pant leg before scurrying over to cease the ringing. 

“Jesus Christ.” She snatched the phone off the jack and held it to her ear, “Yes, hello… Yeah, this is Laina...Oh shit, Randy, I’m so sorry for not calling. Sorry for my language, too. Yeah, I must have gotten hit with that flu bug… Mel and Sandra got it too? That’s terrible...Yeah, probably another day or two… All the subs are booked? Okay, I should get going. I’ll make it up you, bye.” She placed the phone down and sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose. Laina picked the glass back up and spun on her heel. 

“Your boyfriend?” 

Laina flinched and shut her eyes, just nearly avoiding breaking the glass for the second time. Her mouth opened to scream, but she stopped herself, instead going past fear and straight to anger. Her heart raced in her chest. “For fuck’s sakes, I’ve been up for five goddamn minutes!” She clutched her thumping chest with her neatly cut nails, pushing out a shaky breath. 

“Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” Jeff snickered, leaning on the adjacent counter. His unsightly smile grew seemingly wider at her discontent. 

“Can you just leave?! Please just leave!” She spoke with wild hands. She knew she was digging her own grave; she empty handed, yelling at a well known, well practiced serial killer. Laina turned to grab a knife out of the block of wood, but when she felt for the black handles, they weren’t there. Her eyes widened, then squinted into a glare at the empty knife holder like it was the block’s fault. She turned slowly, gripping the side of the faux marble counters with white knuckles. Laina felt dizzy, realizing her position. Her options of self-defense were near nothing, and escaping was looking like a narrow possibility.

“You’re so predictable.” Jeff leaned back, slipping his hands into his sweater pockets. He looked around at the kitchen nonchalantly, as if it was just another sunny, Monday morning. He turned his head at a less than comfortable looking angle towards the window. The backyard was small, no room for anything but storage. The grass hadn’t been cut in a month and a half and weeds grew rampant around the fence. Laina pushed her palms into the counter feeling anxiety well up in her stomach as he just stood there. The more she looked, the more it made her insides twist, so she made a point of keeping her sight as distant as possible. 

Laina was no more than a few meters away from a mad man. A murderer. The severity of her reality snuck up on her and she panicked. She swiped at the phone she had set on the counter a moment ago. With the sweat accumulating on her hands, she was worried it would slip right out like a bar of soap.

“If you don’t leave… I’m gonna… I’m calling the cops,” Laina stuttered, finger hovering over the nine on the dial pad. If she knew what was good for her, she would’ve called right then and there, or just kept the phone on the counter in the first place. But for whatever reason, she hesitated. She swallowed hard as Jeff’s eyes shot towards her. His head still turned towards the window. She felt her stomach drop; she was breathless at the sight of his neck still twisted away and his round, beady, mad eyes burning holes into her own. 

Laina swallowed hard. ‘Call the cops? Why would you even bother?’ She thought silently to herself. The room felt thick and she didn’t dare move a muscle. 

He moved. Laina’s muscles were back in her control and she nearly slammed the phone down on the counter as if that would reverse her actions. Her knees wobbled and rationality was fogged out by a cloud of fear that permeated her thoughts. She couldn’t even breath. Jeff took a few steps closer. Her heart was pounding in its cavity. She thought she would have a heart attack at twenty-four and she thought about how her parents would react, and how Michelle would over react. He stopped no more than a foot away. Laina let her head fall down to the floor, her blonde hair shielding her face as a blockade between them. 

“Laina, you really should be grateful…” He paused to laugh maliciously, not even a hint of playfulness in his voice as he continued, “that I don’t shove a blade seven and a half inches into your stomach.” Ironically, one of Laina’s own kitchen knives rested on the thin material of her shirt. Laina violently flinched to get away from danger. “Don’t move,” He demanded. Her hand that was brought up to push him away stopped in mid air and the stainless steel point was pressed inwards ever so slightly. 

“Please, please don’t,” Laina felt tears form puddles in her eyes as she trembled and begged. The look in his eyes was far from apologetic as she tried reasoning, “I won’t… I won’t do anything stupid.” Jeff’s eyes looked glassy as Laina’s plea fell on deaf ears. Her words only seemed to make everything worse. Laina gasped, her eyes widening, the blade driving uncomfortably close to severing her skin. “Jeff, please!” She cried. Her fingers pulled into the countertop, trying to pull herself as far away from the murderer as possible. 

Laina must’ve gotten through as the knife was hurriedly pulled away. She audibly sighed out, only to be silenced again by the harsh tug of a handful of her hair. The blonde could barely feel relief, just because the blade was away from her stomach didn’t mean the maniac couldn’t put it right back.

“I’m putting in a lot of effort to keep myself from slicing into this pretty little throat of yours,” Jeff whispered, less than gently wrapping a hand around her neck. “Pull shit like that again; I won’t think twice about tearing you apart,” he said lowly into her ear. Laina opened her mouth to speak, but she could barely breath; speaking was out of the question. She made a pathetic attempt at nodding. He looked her up and down, giving her throat another squeeze before letting go. She choked in a breath, getting light headed as she took in air. As she recovered, he took the phone off the counter and threw it to the ground, Laina flinched, hoping the debris didn’t include expensive chipped floor tile. 

Finally catching her breath, Laina had been subconsciously chanting a silent stream of, “I’m sorry”. Her knees fluttered beneath her. She followed Jeff with her eyes as he explored nonchalantly through her kitchen cupboards. He pulled out various dishes and food items, either putting them back or laying them about the counters. He took out a box of cereal and shook it towards Laina. She stayed silent 

“Hungry?” 

She hesitated for several moments before weekly shaking her head. He cackled, cracking open the box and sticking in his hand. 

“Cat got your tongue?” He lifted his hand out of the box, a puffed piece of cereal coming out with it. Laina’s breath hitched as he moved towards her again, strides slow and careful, almost cautious. And even as he kept his movement so soft, they still came off as dangerously predatory. He put the box down on the counter. “Giving me the silent treatment?” 

Laina shook her head. Her watery eyes avoided his face at all costs. 

“Then use your fucking words!” Laina jumped, the knife block and toaster rattled in response. She shut her eyes and pursed her lips as tears ran down her cheek. 

“I’m not! Please…” She stopped only for a second to get her thoughts straight and swallowed the fear caught in her throat to continue, “What do you want from me?” 

Jeff laughed. He snatched back up the cereal box and stood beside Laina, wrapping an arm around her shoulders before she got the chance to move. “Well, let’s see; my last little helper put her nose where it didn’t belong and let’s just say I had to let her go. Can’t have that again, can we?” Jeff shook her, ushering for a verbal response. 

“No.” 

“Exactly, so you’re job is to fill her spot without any complications, you think you could do that for me?” 

She furrowed her brows as she put the pieces together. “I don’t understand, I can’t do something like that,” she said. It wasn’t only the fact that she, obviously, didn’t want to help commit crimes, but she was bad around people. If one slip up could mean her life on the line, she’d really have to add onto her therapy sessions. She reasoned, “I’m really not a people person. I can barely make phone calls.” 

“It’s really not a negotiation. You do me a little favour, or you, and every last person you know, bye bye. Your first job is gonna be… soon enough.” 

Laina sniffed. Tears streaming stickily down her cheeks as she nodded slowly. 

“Good talk,” was all Jeff said before he swooped from the kitchen and out the back. Laina could hear the familiar jingle of her keys as he left the house. Before the door had even shut all the way, Laina had pulled a chair from the kitchen table to the counter and balanced on top of it. Her hand landed on a rectangular box on top of the cupboards and she swiped it down. It was covered in dust and was somewhat sticky, but still wrapped securely in its plastic casing. She merely pushed the chair away as she grabbed a lighter from the drawer. Sliding down against the fridge to the floor, she held a flame to the cigarette between her lips and inhaled the harsh smoke into her sob tightened throat. Laina couldn’t put together the pieces that turned her relatively normal life to shambles.


	5. Stolen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for not updating in a million years! I was on vacation all August then school started and I've been busy. I'll try and do my best with updating more, but I'm gonna be a bit busy now that I actually have real life responsibilities :^) The next chapter gets a little more exciting and a little more messy. Thanks for reading!

Laina was still sat on the floor, nearly an hour later, a half pack of smokes emptied and used from their never before opened carton. Her head was in between her knees and heavy from exhaustion. She stared blankly at the pieces of electronic rubble on the floor. Her mind wandered every which way to distract her. She thought about her co-workers and if they had to switch out time in separate classes to make up for all the sick calls. There was a long weekend coming that Friday and it wasn’t unlikely that there would be so many call-ins.

‘Steph was supposed to hand in that assignment today, it was late for a week and a half,’ Laina thought absently. For once in her entire career, her job was the least stressful thing on her mind and she craved to be behind the desk, marking tests.

Knock, knock, knock. “Laina? Laina open up, it’s Michelle!” The muffled voice called from outside the back door and the doorbell rang sporadically. Laina scurried up from the fetal position, stepping on the shards of plastic before stumbling towards the door. The oven showed 2 o’clock, it had already been two hours since he left. She flicked her last cigarette butt into the sink and flipped the water on and off to make sure it was out.

“Coming!” Laina called back. She finally reached the door and fumbled at the lock. She swung the door open to her favourite sight for sore eyes. She grabbed Michelle and pulled her into a hug, sniffling into her dark, fruity scented curls.

“Hey! I tried texting you, like, a hundred times,” Michelle said, returning the hug and trying not to trip over Laina. Michelle pulled away but kept her hands on her shoulders.

“No, no, no.” Laina looked into Michelle’s worried, olive eyes and felt distraught.

“What is it? What happened, is it your job?”

“No, you can’t be here. You need to leave, it’s not safe.”

“What do you mean?” It only took a moment of Laina’s frantic rambling after that for Michelle to clue into what she was saying. She pushed Laina the rest of the ways into the house and shut the door with her hip. “He was here wasn’t he? I bet him just stepping foot in here would make for blatant evidence. I’ll call the cops right away.”

“No!” Laina shouted, “You can’t he’ll find out and we’ll all be dead and gone before they even get here.”

Michelle shrugged off the warning like it was a casual suggestion and locked the door behind her. She brushed past Laina with her phone in hand, searching up the number for the police station, as if the situation didn’t call for 911.

“You’re so damn stubborn Michelle! You not getting this! He’s coming back and it could be in thirty seconds of thirty days and either way I’m staying here and doing what I need to to keep us safe.”

The two were in the kitchen bickering back and forth, making the best of the clock ticking away at their time trying to convince one another to do the right thing. Michelle was beginning to back down. She didn’t like it, but things were more than complicated; their position was terrifying. Laina’s hands shook with anger and frustration as she flipped open the package of smokes. She just got her fingers on it before Michelle stormed over and ripped them out of her hands like they were a loaded gun.

“You’re smoking again too?”

“Oh, spare me, Michelle,” Laina said around the stick she managed to slip out. She lit it up and took a long, heavy drag, avoiding Michelle’s bothered expression. Laina could’ve grown a head of grey hair then and there and was a little offended that Michelle even questioned her life choices at the moment. “Are you ready to leave?” It hurt Laina to make her go, but if there’s anything she learned growing up, it was that she’d never say goodbye to another friend for good. It took a good three minutes of silence before Michelle took the chance to leave. Laina was too tired and fresh out of tears to weep. She cracked a window in the smoky house to waft out the tense, smoky air.

Laina’s youth was near normal, had it not been for her parent’s restlessness of being in one place for too long. They weren’t travelers, but their job required them to do so. By fourteen, Laina had been to almost every state in America and had lived in a good portion of them too. The ping pong ball journeys from house to house had taken any relationship Laina made and torn them at the seams. Friendships would only last as long as the emails did, which Laina was quick to cut off as soon as she reached the next destination. When high school rolled around, making friends all together was the hard part. She hit a rough patch and fell into a downward spiral, getting into the wrong people and substances. Laina took her father’s razors and took those to her skin where she let out the pent up aggression she felt towards her parents for their selfishness.

It took her up until College to get real help and make solidified friends as she moved on towards her independent life. When she became a teacher, Laina made a point to be a role model for her students. She had a stable job and her first home within two years of recovery and was finally content to stay just where she was for a long while.

The radio station barely gave off any music behind the cloud of static that came from the speakers. Laina decided it was best she leave at least five smokes in the carton for a rainy day and tossed them back up above the cupboards.

She double checked that the doors were locked and turned on the shower. Laina turned on the fan and stepped into the running water, but not before putting on a bathing suit, just as an extra precaution. She’d seen enough horror movie shower scenes. She scrubbed somewhat harshly at her skin and washed her hair twice. She wasn’t usually one to waste water, but she thought she could make an exception. Laina let the hot water run on and off her skin.

It didn’t take long after the water ran cold for her to make her way out. Every creak of the old building startled her to turning the shower off and on again, so she called it quits and turned it off for good.

Laina hadn’t eaten, or done much of anything else, by late evening. Hours thoughtlessly passed as she did nothing but try to watch some tv. Since she was young, she would try to fall asleep after she did something wrong before her parents could come home from work and scold her. She thought that they would forget about it the next morning and all would be forgiven. She was trying the same trick, hoping when she woke up, everything would just be a bad dream.

Despite her night sleeping on the couch, Laina had a pretty restful sleep. Her neck was sore, but her house was empty and still locked up tight. There wasn’t any less of a threat, but she felt like she could at least pull herself together and stay safe.

It was the time of day that people were out walking their dogs or going on runs so she thought if there was any time to leave her house it was then. Laina wanted to talk to Alisa. Maybe it was nothing to be so strung up about, but the way Alisa acted when she picked her up from the theatre wasn’t normal. If Alisa knew something she didn’t about Jeff, Laina wanted to know.

\-----------------------------------------

“Is she coming?” Laina asked.

“Yeah, she’s just nervous I think,” Michelle replied.

Laina sat with Michelle out on her deck in the backyard. Things felt safer at Michelle's than at Laina's own house. It was only an assumption, but she hoped Jeff didn't know where her best friend lived.

The door chimes rang and the two looked over from the table. Alisa looked around nervously as if surveying for predatory dangers and scurried towards the others. The three locked eyes and Alisa slid into the empty seat. She politely declined Michelle's offering of coffee.

“Glad you could make it.” Michelle smiled welcomingly.

“Could we just get to it, please?” Alisa leaned in and spoke quietly as if someone was listening. Her deep eyes made obsessive glances behind the trees behind the house and beyond the fence.

“Yeah, alright.” Laina looked over to Michelle then down to the steam spiralling from her coffee. She didn’t plan out how to go about asking her about Jeff without upsetting her too much. “You don’t have to say anything that makes you uncomfortable, I just need advice.” Laina hoped Alisa had caught on.

Alisa pulled her cardigan closer around herself before answering, “It’s nothing less of a miracle that I got away. Luckily, he only had me for a week before I ended up at the right place at the right time and got a hold of a cop at a gas station. But still, it was easily the longest, most agonizing seven days of my life.”

Laina took a gulp of the coffee, despite its heat. Alisa told as much as she could until she was holding a napkin up to her face and shielding herself from the rest of the nosy customers. Laina listened with intent as Michelle had a comforting hand on Alisa’s back.

“I’m so sorry, I had no idea,” Laina whispered.   
"You don't understand how unsafe you are right now. Michelle's in danger, and now I am too."

Laina was close to tears but held them in for Alisa’s sake. While Alisa was practically being held hostage, people in her life were dropping like flies. First, her roommates, then her boyfriend, various people from her old school, finally her younger sister.

Laina and Michelle stayed sitting on the deck for long after Alisa left. Despite gravely wanting to accept, Laina pushed away Michelle's attempts at giving her a phone to call with. She didn’t want to do something that could bring her friends into her mess. They shared a mutual frustration over how simple it seemed to call the cops and get it done and over with, but from Alisa’s experience, it wasn’t that easy, in fact, it made matters much, much worse.

She said her goodbyes to Michelle, but not before giving her a lecture on locking her doors and not answering any weird phone calls as if she was being left home alone for the first time. Sitting in her car, Laina followed Michelle with her eyes to make sure she got inside alright. She waved to her as she drove off.

Laina sat her car in front of her place and leaned over her steering wheel; she stared at a dreadful yellow sticky note on her front door. She couldn’t yet tell what it said and she didn’t really want to. She took her time getting out of her car and up to the door.

'Good news, your first job starts at midnight -Jeff'

She hurriedly shoved the note into her purse and went inside. She had butterflies in her stomach, and not the “first date” kind, more like the “missed a step” kind. She looked at the clock, she only had seven hours to find a miracle to mentally prepare for whatever was in store for her. Maybe it was just the sudden intake of so much information at once, but it seemed like Alisa’s words were finally sinking in and they weren’t settling well in Laina’s stomach. She felt warm and light headed. She pulled her long blonde hair up off her neck and into a ponytail.

For once, Laina wanted the seconds passing to slow down for a while. It had already been four hours and she could barely focus on the distraction that was on the tv. Her eyes obsessively flickered over to the clock ticking on the wall.

She spent the last 5 minutes of her freedom making sure the doors and windows were secured heavier than the white house. Laina set up her alarm system and double checked to make sure it worked properly. The lights were on from top to bottom. She knew better than to end up walking down a dimly lit hallway. It was night time by then. She sat tapping her fingers on the kitchen table and staring heavily at the clock across from her when she wasn't checking for smiling faces peering in the windows.

Laina pushed out from her chair, heart thumping from the familiar outcry of her alarm going off. She ran up the stairs to her room, skipping every second step to halt the sound as quickly as possible.

“You've gotta be kidding me,” Laina said audibly. She tore the note off the alarm and unplugged the whole apparatus from the wall instead of searching for the off button.

'Good enough distraction?'

Laina looked up slowly, she heard the distant automated voice from the front door saying the system had been unarmed. She peaked her head out of the doorway. Her place was relatively silent, aside from the distant ticking of the clock and hum of the refrigerator. Laina tip toed down the stairs. Despite the eery emptiness of the house, she knew an uninvited guest could be lurking around any corner.

With a steady hand, she slipped her keys off the kitchen table and moved a little quicker to get to the front door. It would be less nerve-wracking being out in the open, even though it was after twelve o’clock in the quiet neighbourhood. She unlocked her car from the front door, getting a head start on getting away, and slipped on a sweater before hurrying out of her house.

Laina sat in her unmoving car, head on the steering wheel, cursing herself out over her own naivety. She had her keychain, containing her house key, mail key, and a keychain from her favourite radio station, but missing one that was necessary for starting her car. When he managed to get his hands on her keys and return them to where she left them was beyond her.

She leaned back into her chair before deciding to call it quits and face whatever was coming head on. Laina reached for her seat belt but barely got it unbuckled before a white-sleeved arm across her shoulders. Before a scream escaped her lips, a chemical smelling cloth covered her mouth and nose, effectively muffling her cry. Her desperate attempts at freedom feebly withered away to nothing as she fell from consciousness.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reading! It's been a really long time since I've written in the creepypasta fandom, it's nice to be back. The relationship between Laina and Jeff can be influenced by readers. Comments are much appreciated!


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